Regeneration expert Dave Adamson yesterday claimed Wales was home to “unemployable” youth and that the nation could be hit by the type of riots which brought carnage to English cities. But, writes David Williamson, Wales children’s commissioner warns we must not write off a generation

CHILDREN’S Commissioner for Wales Keith Towler yesterday attacked claims that young people in the nation are “unemployable” as “simply wrong” and called for action to tackle enduring poverty.

He rebutted a statement by regeneration expert Dave Adamson that Wales is at risk from riots because it is home to the same “disengaged and alienated” youth who took to the streets in England.

Mr Towler said: “Making stereotypical assumptions about a generation is simply wrong. Yes, too many of our young people live in poverty and, yes, too many of them are out of work but it’s certainly not helpful or constructive to label them all unemployable and disengaged.”

Professor Adamson, chief executive of the Centre for Regeneration Excellence Wales (Crew), claimed the “dispersed nature of the Welsh urban population” was a key reason why the nation had not been hit by riots but warned “polarised inequality” had created the conditions for social breakdown.

The children’s commissioner echoed Prof Adamson’s concerns about poverty, but stressed that young people in Wales were strongly opposed to violence.

He said: “The young people who I meet with almost on a weekly basis are concerned about their future, concerned about jobs and care deeply about their communities and their country. They have spoken out themselves about their disgust of the ‘mindless’ riots and how they fear that the criminality of some will reflect badly on all young people. What we must not do is write off a whole generation.

“The issues behind the riots in England are complex and I’m not going to attempt to offer solutions in a short sound-bite. I do agree however that what is needed is a root-and-branch analysis and that this work must happen by engaging with young people.

“In Wales we must not be complacent, we should channel our efforts in ensuring our government in Cardiff Bay delivers on its commitment towards social justice and eradicating poverty.”

However, Welsh children’s author Phil Carradice, a former teacher and social worker who regularly works in schools, recognised widespread disengagement and disillusionment among children who were not thriving at school.

He feared that infrastructure to support young people would vanish and claimed struggling teenagers in secondary school were particularly prone to unhappiness.

“The future isn’t that rosy to be honest with you for some sections of society,” he said.

Mr Carradice said primary school pupils in Wales were generally “wide-eyed” and upbeat, but he could see building disaffection among people in their early teenage years when they realised they were unlikely to go to university and looked out on bleak unemployment prospects.

He said: “There is that tragedy of dysfunction, of disassociation from society and that can only build into more of what we saw last week if that’s not handled.”

School curriculums, he argued, left little room for the type of exercises which could develop their talents and engage them in the classroom.

He said: “It’s a shame because you go in and work with some of these children and get them writing poetry and stories and the work they produce is absolutely fantastic... The tragedy is schools haven’t got time to do that because the national curriculum says we will not do it.”

The growing perception of “unemployable” young people was also attacked yesterday by UK Conservative Employment Minister Chris Grayling, who urged employers not to turn to labour from beyond Britain because of negative stereo- types about the country’s youth.

Responding to Prof Adamson’s comments, he said: “I don’t accept that view that we have a youth population that is unemployable. We certainly have a proportion of the population that has some big challenges who need to be made more employable – and that’s one of the tasks of the Work Programme providers.

“But if you look at the labour market, the vast majority of unemployed people and young unemployed people enter employment within a relatively short space of time. They are on Jobseekers’ Allowance for a few weeks or a few months.

“We’ve got some decent, hard-working, presentable young people who are looking for work right now who deserve to find work. What we mustn’t do is create the sense that you can’t employ a young person in Britain today because somehow they are uncouth and unemployable.

“We’ve got some really good young people who could make a big difference to organis- ations that are looking for staff and we must not write off a generation because of legitimate concerns about a minority.”